Mountaineers look to stay in Big 12 race

“We have a huge challenge this week”, West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said.

Longhorn head coach Charlie Strong has been known as a defensive mind for many years-in fact, his use of nickel packages at SC influenced the development of WVU’s 3-3-5 defense-and earlier this season, he retook defensive play-calling duties from defensive coordinator Vance Bedford after a poor start from the Texas defense.

“Let’s have a second quarter like we had last week”, Holgorsen explained when asked how to avoid a similar situation when the Old Gold and Blue returns to DKR for a noon kickoff on Saturday. Three giveaways led to 17 Oklahoma State points on the road in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and the Cowboys won 37-20, a 17-point margin in a game that was basically even, statistically speaking.

We here at Get More Sports understand why this game is virtually a toss-up. 17 tackles and two sacks the previous two weeks – had helped the Longhorns win consecutive games against Baylor and Texas Tech. We’ve faced it in the past. “If you’re not setting strong and playing with a good base and good pad level, then they’re going to run you right back to the quarterback”. The coaches’ confidence in me is high. Please see our terms of service for more information.

“They give (Foreman) the ball and ride him”. The Mountaineers have allowed just seven rushing touchdowns, fewest in the Big 12.

“He (Foreman) is really good”, defensive coordinator Tony Gibson said. “But, turnovers happen when you get players to run to the football”.

Get the best UT recruiting and team coverage for just $4.17 per month! On the ground, Justin Crawford rushed for 129 yards and a touchdown in 13 carries while Kennedy McKoy had 127 yards in 18 carries.

Jefferson is arguably Texas’ most dynamic defender, so losing him for an extended period could hamper the Longhorns in a significant way. Look for Texas to put a bunch of points on the board today on a now suspect West Virginia D. Luckily for West Virginia their offense gets to face one of the worse defenses in college football, the 112th ranked Longhorns. D’Onta Foreman is making the case for himself that he is the best tail back in the conference. In contrast to the offensive onslaughts allowed against California and Oklahoma earlier in the year, Saturday’s battle provided the type of defense expected from Strong’s team when he took over the program.

“It depends on how many times they give it to him”. “People kind of overthink things a lot of time, it affects the way they take their pass sets, it affects their techniques”.

Shane Buechele struggled to throw the ball early – misfiring twice in the end zone to Collin Johnson on UT’s first drive, a pass batted on third down and a couple other throws could’ve been picked off.

Senior quarterback Skyler Howard completed 21-35 passes for 269 yards and a touchdown but also threw three interceptions. For the season as a whole, Howard has passed for just under 2,300 yards with 16 touchdowns and six interceptions.

“Skyler (Howard) isn’t afraid to stick his nose in there when he has too”, running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider explained. But maybe they could consider no clock stoppages after first downs until the final five minutes of the game, shorten the play clock by 10 seconds, make all timeouts 30 seconds and reduce halftimes to 12 minutes.

That also includes the Mountaineers’ receiving corps led by senior Daikiel Shorts Jr.

Golden: I really like what I’m seeing out of Louisiana Tech’s Ryan Higgins. Locke returned it 2 yards to the UT28 with 14:12 3Q.